No script, no rehearsal, no safety net — just actors jumping in blind. Ready to see them rabbit on? Photos: Supplied.
How does an actor prepare to perform in Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour’s internationally acclaimed theatrical experiment?
“You don’t, really,” actor Adam O’Brien laughs. “You’ve got nothing to lean back on, except the skills you’ve built over the years. You have to trust that’s enough that you can pull it together on the night.”
That’s kind of the point of White Rabbit, Red Rabbit.
Part play, part social experiment, it has no set, no rehearsal, no director’s notes — and no safety net for the cast.
Instead, each night a different performer walks onstage with no knowledge of the script, which is handed to them in a sealed envelope just moments before they begin.
As a result, when Wollongong Workshop Theatre’s production of the global phenomenon hits the stage tomorrow, each of the eight performances by eight different actors is guaranteed to be a unique and unrepeatable theatrical moment, exploring themes of power, obedience, freedom, and the role of the artist under surveillance.
Adam, who is up second in the lineup, says his greatest fear is “coming up against” the content for the first time in front of a live audience.
“We’ve been told next to nothing other than it’ll all be laid out for us, so we’ll be experiencing the content — the potential drama and comedy — along with the audience,” he says. “That is both terrifying and also super exciting.”
The sentiment is echoed by fellow actor Cathy Bates, who’ll be closing the season.
“Usually through rehearsals, you work through any emotions that might bubble up in the content of the story,” she says. “Here, there will be the added layer of uncertainty of what happens if we’re confronted with something in the script that’s triggering personally.”
White Rabbit, Red Rabbit promises some hare-raising theatre.
While the script is entirely unknown to each new audience, it is said White Rabbit, Red Rabbit is as much about contemporary Iran as it is about power dynamics in the rest of the world.
It’s described as the playwright’s distillation of the experience of an entire generation in a wild, utterly original play.
While the show is explicit that there should be no director per se, co-producer Feargus Manning did run a workshop designed to help the performers lean into the courage of acting.
Actors shared examples of times on stage when things had “gotten away” from them, how it felt in the moment and how they recovered.
“We only get one shot at this, and there are no additional cast members to help get things back on track if they go sideways,” Cathy says.
“A big takeaway from Feargus’ workshop was that we will need to lean into the process, and trust in the grace the audience will extend to us as performers in this circumstance, and that they’ll come along on the ride with us.”
Feargus describes White Rabbit, Red Rabbit as “one of the boldest theatrical works of the 21st century”.
“It places total trust in the actor and total presence from the audience. Each night is a high-wire act that no-one — not even the cast — can predict,” he says.
“I have been blessed to have eight incredibly strong performers agree to do this show. They all come from different cohorts of the Illawarra creative community and they’re all very practised at their craft and guaranteed to put on a high-quality rendition of Nassim Soleimanpour’s story. That said, I’m sure there will be eight very different versions.
“For that reason, I’ve already had many people tell me they’re coming to more than one performance.”
Since its 2011 debut, White Rabbit, Red Rabbit has become a worldwide sensation and has been performed more than 3000 times in over 30 languages by stage legends including Michael Sheen, Whoopi Goldberg, John Hurt, and Sandra Tsing Loh.
White Rabbit, Red Rabbit takes place at Wollongong Workshop Theatre from 18 to 28 September — book via TryBooking.
